What Is a Planned Community? A Place With Surprising Perks
What is a planned community? It's a housing development where the homes, roads, stores and other features are carefully designed and orchestrated to make living there as convenient and enjoyable as can be. For instance: Shopping centers may be deliberately situated within walking distance of planned community homes , which are typically attached—condos, townhouses, apartments—to make travel by foot manageable. Trees and flowers are planted alongside most streets, along with hiking/biking trails. High-speed commuter rails whisk workers to nearby urban centers for their 9-to-5 jobs. There may even be village-wide Wi-Fi, to boot. Contrast this with the ad hoc way communities are usually built: In many cases, a developer just plunks down row housing on a parcel of land nowhere near commercial districts, which means you'll have to always grab your car keys for a carton of milk. Sometimes, luck or some modicum of forethought helps these neighborhoods turn out OK, but planned communi...